Coturnix quail (Coturnix japonica) aka Japanese quail

I will open with the caveat that (so far) I've only raised the pharoah (wildtype) color pattern. But, being me, am looking ahead and learning about all the different colors and their genetic basis.

​For now this is a 'parking lot' for my notes.

Varieties

Pharoah - wildtype. ​Pharoah is a moderately brown speckled (camouflage) bird. Both sexes tend to have a light stripe above the eye and light stripes through the feathers. Females have speckled chests, males have a cream-orange chest without speckling. Young birds look more like females.

I use this as the base description and compare other colors against this type.

'Browns'

​Range - In America, the Range Coturnix is often referred to as the British Range, while in the UK, it is sometimes called the American Range.

EXTENDED BROWN, E (older literature uses B) - Autosomal Incomplete dominant - extends the distribution of black and dark brown pigment throughout the plumage. Reduces the lighter markings (eyebrow stripe, throat markings), adds darker brown (near black) pencilling, dark grey feathers on the back and shifts beak and legs to an olive-brown and eyes to a darker brown. Both sexes appear the same (this seems to be the tell-tale feature that the E gene is present, even when combined with other genes that lighten color, the sex difference in the chest color is lost with E).

American Range - in Britain, this seems to be used most often for the lighter ​Tibetan aka dark British Range - sometimes used as a synonym for range, sometimes seems to refer to only the darkest form. References often refer to this form as 'incompletely dominant' which I take to mean that it always throws some of the lighter shade.

Black at hatch (Bh) - This is dominant over other colours (epistatic too?) but a double dose where two Bh birds are crossed can have lethal consequences with a proportion of eggs failing to hatch. This seems to be an allele at the same loci as E which turns up mostly in 'Tibetan' varieties.

​Jumbo Brown Coturnix - in the US, these are exactly like pharoah, only larger.'Browns' (aka range)

​Australian Brown - also a larger variety. Unclear whether these are pharoah or range coloring.

'Reds'​Red/Cinnamon - Autosomal Recessive (cin)

'Yellows'

3 alleles - Y, Y^F, and y+ y+y+ = wild type

Y is an autosomal dominant gene. Yy+ gives a rich golden wheat color (base color called Gold or Golden) YY is believed lethal (25% fatalities in crossing 2 golden birds through a combination of failure to hatch and failure to thrive).

Y^F is incompletely dominant to y+ and codominant to Y. YY^F is not lethal (looks the same as Yy+??). Y^FY^F gives a warm pinkish-brown in which the fawn feathers are pencilled with white and the white eyebrow lines are present, although not as strongly defined as in other breeds. Beak and legs are light pinkish-brown, and eyes are dark brown. Difference between the sexes may be lost even in the absence of E. (base color called Fawn) Y^Fy+ ???

There are many named varieties that all seem to be due to some combination of red, yellow and brown

cin is most commonly in Red Golden/Scarlett, Roux Dilute, and Red Range

Gold - seem to be Yy+. The male is lighter while the female is darker and more striated. She also has distinctive brown stripes around the face.

Manchurian golden (akaGolden, Manchurian, Golden Speckled) - seem to be Yy+ - not sure whether that's the same as gold.

Italian - beige to yellow with striated markings (v-marks in plummage). - Many will refer to this beautiful variety as "Goldens" or "Golden Manchurians," however those are misleading. There are almost 34 different varieties within the golden varieties. This is just one of them.

Red Range- literature is very confused as to whether this is based on cin or Y or Y^F but definitely E. Described by one author as Tibetan with roux dilution

Scarlett - aka Red Golden. A nice red color with gold pinning. Described by one author as Rosetta with roux dilution

Roux Dilute (aka Fawn) - A lighter color of the wild coturnix. Described by one author as pharoah with roux dilution

Rosetta - Unclear what genotype is producing this color! or even if 'rosetta' means the same color to all authors. ​Rosetta is a more solid colored fawn and seems to be E-Y^FY^F

Rosetta- A combination of an English white and a Dark British Range. A lighter orange/tan color throughout body. The UK call them American Range. Incomplete dominant

"rosetta ( this is going to be controversial. I call this colour rosetta because the first time I saw a pic of it it was on strombergs and they called theirs a rosetta. However they say its a hybrid. Well, it's not. It's a bird that has one copy of the extended brown gene, and a bird that has two is a british range. It comes out kind of dark auburn, lighter than a british range but much darker than a pharoah. As far as I know I am the only person who has really made sense of this for breeders so I think I get to call it what I want and it's a much less confusing name than calling it a red range or something. If you want to see what it looks like the pic on strombergs should do)."

White - English white were the original white birds. Beak and legs are pinkish and eyes brown. While pure white is preferred, black patches, particularly on the back of the head, are common. Autosomal Codominant. whwh = white. Whwh = tuxedo Most English whites also appear to have the dominant E gene and y+ (hence the black patches - which will lighten to brown with wildtype or golden with yellow genes).

There appears to be (at least) a second gene controlling the spotting. Breeding a PURE White (no spots) to another pure white (no spots) will produce 25-50% pure whites, others will more than likely have spots (wild colored spots on back of head neck and possibly back).

A&M - a larger version of the English white created by Texas A&M - has all white meat. Most A&M also appear to have the dominant E gene.

Imperfect albinism (al) - This is sex-linked recessive. Two doses produce albino, pink-eyed and white feathered chicks. This pigmentation mutant results in subnormal levels of pigmentation of the eyes and feathers of affected birds. Faint stripes on the backs of the adults is apparently due to structural color only. Viability is reduced both before and after hatching in birds homozygous for this gene.

An incompletely dominant albino gene (pink eyes) has also been reported.

The best contrast (preferred standard) is achieved using dark range, but most base colors can be used.

Red Tuxedo- A new two colored pied pattern. Looks like a normal tux but the red replaces the dark plumage. Golden tuxedos are also a newer rare variety.

Other White pattern genes - these don't seem to be in common use to create named varieties, but have been reported in the scientific literature...

WHITE BEARD, bd^w - Autosomal recessive - On brown feathered birds this trait appears as a small white beard-like patch of feathers under the lower beak - shows up in pharoah and jumbo browns.

WHITE-BREASTED, wb - Autosomal recessive - White feathers cover the face to just above the eyes. the underside of the neck, the entire breast, and the sternum up to and including the vent area. The primary feathers down to most of the secondary feathers as well as their coverts are also white.

WHITE-CRESCENT, cr - Autosomal recessive - A crescent-shaped band of white feathers extends across the breast.

DILUTE, al^DInherit: Sex-linked recessive; al^D, alLinkage: Sex ChromosomeCharacteristic: "This mutant pigmentation gene causes an overall reduction in pigmentation. The shanks are free of pigment, down is light in color as is the adult plumage. Eye color is NOT affected. It is also one of the alleles at the A1^+ locus."Reference: Poultry science, 53:1908, 1974.Source: Fawn/Cinnamon

Silver (B)

This is incompletely dominant. It is associatedwith slow growth and slow sexual maturity when two of thesame are crossed.

Homozygous "white" (B/B) quail which have a white plumage also show a slightly lower growth, lower body temperature, smaller heart, and lighter pectoralis muscles but more abdominal adipose tissue than the recessive homozygous "wild-type" (+/+) and heterozygous "silver" (B/+) quail.

BLEU, blInherit: RecessiveCharacteristic: This recessive mutation replaces the brown color of the wild-type with bluish grey an the cream-colored markings with white.Reference: Perramon, 1988

Redhead (erh)

This is recessive and where it manifests, produce birds that are predominantly white with irregular black and rust plumage. The male's head is rust coloured.*red head- from what I read on labratory studies this bird is white with a RED head....interesting! Red Head- RecessiveRED HEADInherit: Autosomal RecessiveLinkage: UnknownCharacteristic: "The underfluff of both sexes is smoky black, the base of the feathers are white with irregular bands of black and rust. Feathers are usually tipped in rust. The beak and shanks tend to be whitish color and eye color is unaffected. Females are generally lighter in color with the dorsal being darker. Breast is whitish with upper breast feathers tipped black and rust. Flanks and abdomen are white. Head is white with a black cap whose feathers are tipped with rust. Males are much darker overall. There is considerably more black in all feathers with darker rust tips. Breast tends to be light rust carried well down to the abdomen. Head is dark rust with a black cap or head streak.Reference: Unpublished

There are also feather structure mutations associated with Japanese quail:

Defective feathering (Df)

This is dominant giving short, sparse feathers.

Porcupine (pc)

Recessive producing abnormal furled feathers on the back.

Rough textured (rt)

Recessive producing feathers rough to the touch.

Ruffle (rf)

Recessive producing soft barbs to some of the feathers.

Short barb (sb)

Recessive where ends of the back feathers are short and appear broken.

Curly feathers result from abnormal early growth caused by transient joining of follicle walls of adjacent feathers around 10 days of age, but the expression of the trait is variable. Rusty plumage color results from the replacement of the wild-type plumage pattern on the tip of the feather by a reddish coloration, but the pigmentation of the bottom part of the feather is not affected. Two lines breeding true for the curly or the rusty phenotype were developed. Both characters are determined by autosomal recessive mutations which are independent. The curly mutation has also a positive effect on body weight at 5 weeks of age.

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